The UK is currently reviewing Safety at Street Works and Road Works: A Code of Practice, commonly known as the Red Book.

One principle is already clear: temporary traffic management cannot simply be installed and left alone. It needs to be checked and maintained throughout the works.

In practice, this is already happening. Safety officers, supervisors and inspectors carry out checks, take photographs, issue reports and raise problems through email, messaging platforms and internal systems.

The question is not whether inspections are taking place.

It is whether the information they generate forms a clear record of what was actually found on site.

A photograph may show a displaced barrier. A message may flag a missing sign. A report may confirm that an issue was corrected. All of these are useful.

But they do not always create a structured link between the relevant traffic management layout, the actual field condition, the deviation identified and the action taken.

That distinction matters.

In the 2025 High Court case Brown v Morgan Sindall Construction and Infrastructure Ltd, the court considered the inspection and maintenance arrangements at a roadworks site following an injury to a cyclist. Among the issues discussed was the absence of records for checks that were said to have taken place.

The case does not mean every inspection needs to be photographed or digitally recorded.

It does, however, highlight a practical point: carrying out a check and being able to show later what that check found are not the same thing.

This is where digitalisation can help.

The opportunity is not necessarily to create more paperwork or more photographs. It is to connect the information already being collected more consistently.

A site check could link the relevant plan or layout with the time and location of the inspection, the field condition observed, any deviation found, the action taken and, where useful, photographic or other digital evidence.

That creates something more useful than a collection of individual messages or images. It creates a record that can be traced and reviewed later.

Mobile capture, computer vision and spatial analysis may also help professionals compare the intended arrangement with what is actually present on the road.

The aim is not to replace professional judgement.

It is to make existing inspection work more consistent, traceable and easier to verify.

As the Red Book is being updated, that may be a useful next step for the industry to consider.